Hey, there! Log in / Register
Where have town bands gone?
By rockportlegionband on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 8:10pm
Where have all of the old-fashioned town bands gone? Today, most of them seem to be dead. Years ago, almost every town had its own volunteer band; there were also fantastic professional bands touring the country (Gilmore, Sousa, Pryor, Clarke, etc.), and therefore, all kinds of music were made available to the public for free -- by town bands. Now, a player has to travel to join one, because there aren't any in his/her home town any more.
It seems that we are now the only vibrant town band left on the North Shore, and we're forced to draw from the entire North Shore area to get enough players, so we're really a community band. The band at full strength has about forty players, but we need more, due to work schedules, vacations, and so on.
Yup, we're located at the end of the T line in Rockport (probably like going to a foreign country from Boston?), and Yup, we've got a reputation as being kind of funky (we're not, really), and Yup, we're really getting better (more modern music, more historical music, more pop tunes, more classical band music and orchestral transcriptions), so why don't we get musicians to come out here to play?
We don't want to die! We accept adults and students who are competent on their chosen instruments without auditions, even if the players are out of practice. Maybe it's more like "Where have all the town band players gone"?
Here's the band link if you have questions, or you're interested in playing:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
OFFS
It's its, not it's.
IT'S...
I don't get it
How can someone who can read the arcane notation of music misuse it's?
Different brain parts
Different brain parts, apparently.
Lexington has
the Lexington Bicentennial Band.
Arlington and Belmont have
the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, and the associated Arlington-Belmont Chorale.
Not bands
That's an orchestra and chorale. There are maaaany such things in the Boston area. The poster is asking why there aren't concert and/or marching bands anymore.
I think part of why there aren't a lot of community bands is because we're a city with a lot going on in terms of the arts. Why would someone go see a community band that takes people without auditions when there are so many higher-caliber orchestras and chamber ensembles around? It's really easy to find great free or low-cost concerts here. I think that Sousa-type bands were more popular before we were inundated with conservatory programs and symphonies with multi-million-dollar budgets. And also before recorded music was so readily available. I think people are less likely to go hear an amateur group when we have radio stations and CDs and iPods full of the best musicians in the world.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not someone who thinks amateurs have no business making music. I spend my days making music with young children and with adults with severe disabilities. I definitely think the arts are for everyone. I'm just saying that, given the plethora of low-cost professional and aspiring-professional performances around here, most people aren't going to get super excited about supporting and promoting a community band that "takes musicians even if they are out of practice."
I'm sure the group has fun, and if I were to encounter them playing at a community event, I'm sure I'd be really happy to see people having fun making music together. I also think it's fabulous that they do nursing home performances. I'm totally not one to be OMG A WRONG NOTE BOOT THEM OFF THE STAGE NOW. But I'm not going to seek them out. I'm more likely to go to a free recital at one of the colleges.
(Also, since the original poster was wondering why they're having a hard time getting members, I'm going to throw in my two cents that I do periodic gigging, and I'm married to a full-time musician, and I've never heard of that band. Maybe they're not getting the word out in enough music circles? Unfortunately, I'm a strings and keyboard player, so I wouldn't be much help to a concert band. Sounds fun though!)
School music programs are
School music programs are way down, and the old CYO marching band circuit has been dead for decades. No new blood.
Are marching bands dead?
They were the subject of the feature film "Drumline" a few years ago, although they seem to be more popular down south and with black kids.
White folks too
Maybe that film featured black kids, but in many parts of the country, marching bands are still very popular - with all races. I don't know why that's not true around here. Once difference is that in some places the high school football teams are a big deal, the whole town goes to games, and the bands are a big part of it.
Not enough rural schools?
I think marching bands (and the culture you described, where the whole town goes to high school football games) tend to be popular in places where there isn't much else to do.
I went to high school in the Seattle area. The big cultural difference between there and here is that the Seattle area has a LOT of areas that have resisted becoming suburbs. Public transportation there sucks, which is part of it. So you get places 5 miles outside of Seattle or Bellevue or Tacoma where there are family farms, lots of family-owned businesses, and nothing much to do. These places aren't really suburbs or exurbs, because most of the people don't work in or routinely patronize businesses in urban areas.
So yes, you get places that are (geographically) in the metropolitan area, but the most popular Friday-night entertainment is taking the family to the high-school football game.
The area where I lived was more urban, but our school competed with these kinds of towns, so the district insisted that we have a football team and a marching band to go with it. Our football team pretty much never won, and our marching band consisted of requiring everyone who was in a music ensemble to go to football games and stand in rows and sightread marching band tunes.
In the 1960s, in Boston
In the 1960s, in Boston alone, you had bands associated with St. Anne's, Dorchester, St. Peter's, Dorchester, St. William's, Dorchester, St. Thomas, Jamaica Plain, Sacred Heart, Roslindale, and St. Theresa's, West Roxbury. Each might have upwards of 150 kids in their system, practicing year round for parades, concerts and competitions.
Those orgainizations are long dead. The parades that familiarized audiences with band music barely exist any more. Parades today are mostly politicians and trucks carrying waving kids. The whole culture of band music is dead as the proverbial doornail.
Apologies
I must confess, I never thought to cause such an uproar with a misplaced apostrophe. I was also interested in the fact that the first responses had nothing to do with the subject matter of the posting.
However, there is still the issue of disappearing amateur bands. Gustav Holst (you can Google him) once said: "Any music worth performing is worth performing badly".
What ever happened to enthusiastic amateur musicians getting together to play music for fun? The groups have often become the focus of an entire town whenever they perform, and sometimes they can perform very well.
That's the view from here, out at the edge of the universe.
S.C. Thomas
Music Director
Rockport Legion Band
I must confess, I never
Internet message board enthusiasm is inversely proportional to the importance of the subject.
town bands alive and well
Community banding is alive and well here in Canada, at least. If you google "community concert band" you will turn up listings for many many bands, in every province. Or you can check out the list maintained by a friend and fellow Canadian bander, here:
http://www.grahamnasby.com/misc/music_local-resour...
That said, it seems it is always a part of band life to work hard at membership and at audience-building and maintenance.
One commenter suggests that competition for audience with other events is a key issue - I'd agree, but, at least for many of the Toronto groups, community bands offer a quality product, programmed to be audience-friendly, and at an affordable price. I'm thinking that "value proposition" might be pretty important over the next 18 months or so, as we all continue the rough ride in the economy.
But for further supportive chat, this type of topic is welcome at this blog:
http://maplecrow.wordpress.com
Thanks Gabriel
Thanks for the input Gabriel -- by the name, you must play a horn of some type. (-:
Our "value proposition" is that we don't charge admission to any of our programs. We're truly a volunteer community group -- musicians, directors, audience, etc. We are also what would be considered a "small market" band -- unlike the Toronto area, which must have a large pool of musicians. We exist in a community of about 7200 residents, and are an hour away from Boston, making it difficult for musicians in that area to come out here, so recruiting is always an issue.
You can take a look at us, and our programming at:
http://rockportlegionband.wordpress.com
S.C. Thomas
Music Director
Rockport Legion Band